Sweltering southern Europe

11 August 2017

Southern Europe is in the grip of a relentless heatwave, fuelling wildfires and water shortages. Information from the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite has been used to map the sweltering heat across the region.

The map shows that on 7 August 2017, temperatures of the land surface rose above 40°C – not an usual occurrence over the last weeks. Much of Italy, including Rome, Naples, Florence, Sardinia and Sicily has been suffering these highs. With numerous towns and cities on the ministry of health's maximum heat alert, the Italians have aptly dubbed the heatwave ‘Lucifer'. Extreme temperatures have also been recorded in Spain and Portugal, the Balkans and Greece.